It all changed
by Sunriserooftops
Summary: Going on tour changed the Haley James' life; it brought her to Columbia University and, by accident, into the life of Chuck Bass. What happens when Chuck's friends aren't the only ones scheming, but one jealous ex husband makes a return?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything, all rights to their respective owners!

**A/N: **This one is for all you Chaley lovers who, like me, want more Chaley love in the world!

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Chapter 1. Coulda, woulda, shoulda

Haley closed her eyes and let out a long over-due sigh. Her bed creaked against her weight, but didn't protest half as much as she had expected. Staring at the ceiling, Haley thought back over the past year and all the things that could have been.

She could still be married to Nathan Scott, if she hadn't gone on the tour with Chris and The Wreckers…

She could have lived with Nathan in their apartment.

She could have gotten pregnant.

She could have had a family with the man she loved.

She could have lived out her days in quiet contentment.

But, that was not the case of this Haley James. No, she had gone on tour with Chris, causing her marriage to fall apart and her future to go with it. So when the letter came in the mail, she had been accepted to Columbia University, full ride and everything, she hadn't been able to say 'thanks, but no thanks'. She had answered the immediately, 'I will be attending'.

The white ceiling seemed to come down on her, inch by inch, as she repeated the image of Nathan yelling at her. Of Nathan crying. Of Nathan's face when she threw the divorce papers at him. The ceiling kept crawling closer and closer, until she couldn't stand it for another second. She shot out of bed and threw clothes on.

This was New York City, there had to be better things to do than lie around thinking about your ex-husband?

* * *

Dan punched him. Actually punched him. And for what? Well, for sleeping with his sister, of course. In retrospect, feeling the blood trickle out of his nose, he knew he should have been a better man about it. But he had been so eager to get Blair back, it hadn't even mattered. Jenny had suddenly been this footnote, something that seemed to be in a different life. When he saw Blair, all he could think about was her. About getting her back.

She had explained. She had been almost as desperate as him to find a way for things to work.

Until Dan had punched him.

He grunted as he felt the icepack clunk against his nose, Lily standing there beside him even after what he had done.

"I should have-"

"Charles," her calm, soft voice said. It sounded like a song after all the screaming that had gone on that night. He was tired. "I should berate you, but you need someone too. Let them be mad at you, take some time away, but let me be here for you." He nodded in agreement.

* * *

"Get off me!" Haley screamed, stumbling away from the guy grabbing at her ass. She waved her left hand in his face. "I'm married, you ass!"

He looked at her with utter shock. "Sorry," he muttered and stumbled away, drunk as a skunk. She pushed her drink away, the annoying feeling of him having put something in it pricking at the back of her mind.

"Water," she yelled at the bartender as he leaned in to get her order. He frowned, but complied. She smiled a friendly smile before then cruising the crowd, trying to fit in. She had seen half of these kids before she realized, on various TV-shows, talking about their wealthier-than-God parents, in the papers and on the newest thing she had found – the gossip-column service that was appropriately enough named Gossip Girl.

Somewhere across the crowd she heard someone yell out a name, it sounded like a fish. Her muddled, drunken mind somehow managed to get the name to be Salmon, but she severely doubted that had been it. "What the hell happened to you?" one of the guys asked as he dunked the Salmon on the back. Haley passed them, the answer fading fast, but she managed to overhear a few words. "I did the Humphrey girl, I need a drink-" and she shook her head, detesting the _boy_ for all his faults. She cursed all of them for being so… so… Urgh! None of them were men, not like her Nathan had been, he had been all man- She broke those thoughts off before she started to focus on some of his more masculine features, and it wouldn't be his chiselled jaw she would be thinking of.

She put her glass of water down and exited the club, gasping in the cool night air. One thing was on her mind. Then she admitted to herself she was actually thinking about Nathan's – well, not jaw, that was for sure – and upped the count to two, two things were on her mind. One of which being sleep, the other being unimportant. She caught a cab, gave the driver the address and were about to leave, when someone banged the top of the cab. He stopped and she protested loudly as the door opened.

"This guys needs a ride," someone slurred from outside, and Haley slurred back, pissed off they'd hijacked her cab.

She even swore.

But that didn't help.

She recognized the guy now sleeping on her shoulder.

It was the Salmon man, the one who was such an ass. She slapped him, and he grunted in his sleep, so she slapped him again.

He opened his eyes, looked at her and smiled. "You're beautiful," he slurred, but she could put money on him not being drunk already. He'd just gotten there.

"And you're drooling on me," she half-slurred back. He laughed and then started to fade out, like he was slipping. She slapped him again. Suddenly she felt a lot more sober, cos this guy seemed to be out of it for the both of them. "What's you name?" she asked, now a bit concerned. He hadn't been there long enough to get this drunk.

Something was wrong.

"Chuck." His eyes were still closed.

"Chuck, open your eyes."

He wrenched one eyelid open and peered at her. "Why?" he mumbled.

"How much did you have to drink?"

He laughed, and his eye closed again. "Just a whisky," he smiled. Yes. Unless he could handle no alcohol, something was wrong.

"Any medication?"

He nodded with that goofy grin. "Mmmhm, sure thing, painkillers and something else…" His smile turned into a frown. "Can't remember what though." He stumbled on the words and she turned to the cabbie.

"We're gonna need to go to a hospital instead," she said, and with a single look at Chuck she added: "And quick."

* * *

He woke up in an all too bright room, the white walls so bright it cut through his already pounding skull. The bed has was in was beyond uncomfortable and he squinted to see where he was.

Hospital.

Great, he thought, his mind soggy and his mouth feeling sticky. Looking around the room as his eyes slowly adjusted to the harsh light he noticed small annoying birds in the ceiling right above him. Fugg'em. Then he discovered he wasn't alone. On his arm he felt something warm, and looking down he saw a brown head of hair. Almost like Blair's, but not. The shade was softer, richer and not as perfect. He moved his arms a little and she jostled, looking up at him from her uncomfortable position. She sat up, her back cracking as she made a face and then she stretched.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, her voice low and soft, like she expected him to be hung over. He smiled.

"Peachy," he retorted and she smiled.

"You really shouldn't take pain-meds and drink you know," she said, almost sweetly. He snorted. She shrugged and then, almost to herself, she added something he barely caught. "Coulda, woulda, shoulda." She then looked up at him, her eyes thinly veiled with grief. "Just don't do it again," she said. Her voice was firm, caring and way too stubborn. He liked her.


	2. Chapter 2

_Omg, you guys! Thank you all for the alerts and the faves and everything so far, you are all amazing!_

_Now, I think this chapter is a little weak, but I promise, stick with me and next chapter will be getting back to the GG basics :)_

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Don't forget to tell me what you think, I love knowing what's going through your head when you're done reading!

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Chapter 2. In the harsh light of day

The sun settled in the sky as Chuck grunted and Haley laughed; the sun hitting his eyes just right for him to close them in a discontent moan. It was the second day of his hospital-stay, and according to the doctors his drinking and taking the pills, well, it was now construed as attempted suicide. Haley had told them it must have been a mistake on his part, but since she didn't know him they only waved her off.

So far during their two days, they had been small-talking, and big-talking. She had told him about Luke and the café and her love for music, trying to deliberately leave out some of the horrible parts of her story. He on the other hand left nothing out; he told her all his dirty details and seemed relieved to finally be able to tell someone.

His eye drifted closed, again, too tired to fight for control. He slipped into sleep and Haley watched him, serene and so childlike. He looked so innocent, but she knew he was all but. The things he had done would make most people shiver, maybe even run screaming for the hills. Nathan had been an ass, a real grade-A asshole when she met him. She didn't think she could change Chuck in the way she had changed Nathan, she pretty much knew she didn't want to change Chuck either. With Nathan, it hadn't turned out so well…

She looked down at her left hand, the indention on her finger still visible. They hadn't been married for that long, but her wedding band had been just a little too tight and had marred her skin and body because of it. She had waited, hoped, prayed all summer that the indention would just go away.

No such luck.

* * *

Chuck whimpered, his eyes fluttering heavily in his sleep and he twisted under the sheets. She put a gentle hand on his arm, and tried to remember if she had ever had to comfort someone before. Someone who quite clearly had so many scars that needed healing.

Chuck woke up, and found a sleeping head on his arm. It was dark out, the stars somehow shining through the heavy clouds that always hovered above New York, and they broke through the daze of his conscience. He moved his arm, just half an inch, and the sleeping girl woke up. She looked tired, more tired than he felt, and she had been crying.

He reached out and touched her cheek, wiping at some of the mascara. "What's wrong?" His voice hoarse and husky made her blink at him.

"Nothing," she lied. He saw the lie in her eyes, her all too honest eyes. Like he had been doing while she spoke of her past. He tried to smile, and this time he thought he actually mustered to smile for real.

"Why haven't you gone home yet?" he asked.

"I didn't want you to be alone." She looked away as she said it and it wasn't a surprise to him that he was all alone in the world after what he had done. But for Haley, who really didn't know anything but his sordid past, to stay when everyone else fled… He smiled.

"I'm used to be alone," he drawled and she shook her head.

"No one should be alone," she said, insistent. "Least of all when they're in the hospital."

There was a long silence, one where Chuck tried to think of something to say that wouldn't sound like he was trying to tell her to go away, or made him sound ungrateful, or even that made her pity him even more. So the words out of his own mouth surprised him. "Thank you."

She was as surprised as he, but slowly smiled. "Don't thank me yet," she said. "I'll make sure you keep that promise of not drinking and taking pills."

"How?"

She grinned. "I guess you just have to put up with me."

He laughed, before he stopped with a groan. His head still pounded away softly, always ready to remind him that he had risked his own life. But his headache could go fuck itself; he had Haley to remind him now. And that was better than any headache.

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She closed her eyes as she fell into bed, feeling more than a little exhausted.

How long had she really been in the hospital?

She looked up at the calendar on her wall, the huge piece of paper with red crosses telling her which days had passed, and which was left.

It had been six days since she moved. Six days had she been here, and five of them she had been at the hospital with Chuck. No wonder she was tired! She had slept in awkward positions, head bent to hell and never really resting because a hospital never sleeps.

She kicked her shoes off, closing her eyes again and smiling as she remember the looks on Charles' face when he realized she was leaving.

"You going?" he'd asked, his eyes wide and innocent, like a child.

"Just home, I need to sleep properly, have a long, long shower. Besides, you sleep all the time, so I need some more books too. These hospital ones are crap." She pulled at the borrowed shirt. "So are their clothes." The shirt was three sizes too big and a very weird faded red. And it smelled of cardboard box.

He'd laughed; a small laugh that hadn't seemed to cause him any pain. After putting her jacket on, she'd bent and given him a kiss on the forehead and told him to be nice to the nurses, just as the nurse for the night came in. She'd laughed too, just as Chuck had, but she'd still seen the shock in his eyes when she'd kissed him.

What would he do, sue her for caring too much too soon? She scoffed.

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Daybreak. And he was still all alone. Haley had gone home, and somewhere in the pit of his stomach he thought he didn't deserve her coming back. He was ruined in the most horrible way and he didn't know how she could even stand sitting there beside him, knowing everything he had done to fellow human beings.

Maybe she had seen something good in him, since she had stayed for so long.

But she was gone now, her too. All of them, faded like ghosts into the mist that was his life while he struggled to keep going.

None of them had known how close he'd really come to lose his footing, lose his life, when his father had died. None of them had known just had bad it had really been after that. None of them had known the pain of being him, waking up in his own skin, every single day of his life. His mother dead, or worse, his father six feet under and an uncle that hated him as much as he loved cocaine. The only woman Chuck had ever really loved was Blair Waldorf, which in itself said something about his self-esteem. Blair was manipulative, twisted and dark in her own cherry-blossom, cutsie kind of way. She was evil, and not just skin deep. She was malicious when she wanted something and someone else had it. She didn't stop at nothing, and she had made it perfectly clear she had hated him for the loss of Nate.

And then there was Nate, Nathaniel Archibald, supposedly his best friend.

Chuck closed his eyes and hoped it would be the last time. He prayed, actually begged, the headache would consume him at last.

"You asleep?" the soft voice said and he looked up into a face he wasn't yet familiar with.

"You came back."

"Of course," she smiled.

"I thought maybe, in the harsh light of day…"

"All you horrible tales of woe would scare me off? Please, I lived in Tree Hill okay? My best friend is the illegitimate child of one of the hot-shots of Tree Hill, and widely known for having slept with two best friends. I may seem all sweet," she said, and this time he saw something much more closely related to the truth. "But honestly Chuck, I have a story of my own, and it might not involve drugs and alcohol at sixteen, but it's still not pretty. In your world, my problem are tiny potatoes, in my world, you potatoes doesn't even exist."

"Why are you talking about potatoes?" he frowned.

"Never mind," she smiled, sitting down. Her hair was still wet, and she had a bag slung over her shoulder that now hit the floor. "How are you feeling today?"

"Actually, a lot better."


	3. Chapter 3

**3. When life comes crashing in**

"You live here?" she asked incredulously and looked around the living room as Chuck smirked a little, a smirk that was a little pained.

"Yeah, for a while now."

"Wow. Either someone trusts you a whole bunch, or you, mister, are one lucky guy," she smile, throwing herself onto the couch and let out a giggle. "So much better than my dorm room."

"You're welcome at any time, after what you've done for me."

She sat up, with a faint trace of a smile on her face. "You shouldn't be so down on yourself, Chuck. I hate to see that look on your face."

"What look?"

"That one right there, like you are waiting for me to scream at you, hit you, walk out. I won't. That's not who I am."

Chuck nodded. "I'll believe you, if you let me take you out to dinner later this week?"

"Don't you have therapy and hearings and things?"

He nodded, his eyes closing. "Which reminds me I should probably get rid of all of my liquor, or at least hide it somewhere where no one will find it when they come to inspect my house."

"It was nice of your step-mom to come bail you out at least," Haley said trying to find a high note.

"Yes, well, it would have been a lot nicer of her if she hadn't been so-"

"Angry?"

"I was going for bitchy, but yes, angry."

Finally back in her dorm room Haley checked her phone. Her parents had called, Luke had called, even Peyton had called. And most surprising of all – Chris had called. She didn't feel like talking to any of them. Chris was an ass, Peyton had been a bitch when she had come home, Luke was with Peyton – maybe – and her parents…

She groaned and fell into bed with the phone clutched to her chest. She decided maybe she should call someone after all. Talk to someone about where she was and what was going on in her life.

But before she had time to finish the thought, she was asleep.

Blair was pacing the apartment when Dorota came back home. "Where have you been? I have been waiting for an hour!"

"I'm sorry miss Blair, but I met miss Serena, she said to tell you Chuck has been in hospital," the maid said, her English broken with a hint of polish. Dorota stared at Blair with wide eyes as Blair felt all the blood drain from her face. Any other day of the week, and Blair might have received the news a bit better. As it was, she had been bursting at the seems waiting for news on Chuck, now that she was home from Paris and all.

"All right. Now go make me lunch. I am starving."

Dorota frowned and nodded, dropping the bag in her hand on the table in the foyer. When she was alone, Blair took deep breaths, having a hard time trying to find her centre.

She picked up her phone and dialled Nate. She listened to the dial tone and waited for him to pick up.

"Hey Blair," he greeted.

"Did you know Chuck has been in the hospital?"

"What? When?"

"I don't know! I've been in Paris, Nate, you've been here. Why didn't you know?"

"We uhm, we had a bit of a falling out after the Jenny thing…"

"The Jenny thing?" she sneered. "Oh Nate, you have such a knack for understating things! I want you to find out why he's been in the hospital. I've had a falling out with Serena, but I think she'll still talk to you. Ask her." And with that demand, she hung up.

Haley woke up sometime around three pm, the sun pouring in through her window and a content feeling of actually being okay settling in her chest. She took her phone, flipped through the phonebook and then settled on a person to call.

"Talk to me," the voice at the other end chirped and Haley laughed.

"Hi to you too Brooke."

"Haley!" she exclaimed. "Oh my god, how are you? Are you okay? How's New York?"

"Slow down, please, I'm still not really awake…"

"You've been sleeping in the middle of the day?"

"Mmhm. But I'm good. I've made a friend. But New York is- It's huge Brooke."

"Yeah totally, I know. I am so jealous of you. I wanna go to college too."

"Aren't you at college?"

Haley could practically hear Brooke roll her eyes at her. "Of course, but it's not the same as your college."

"Okay, Brooke," she laughed, and then they talked about home, about Luke and Peyton and the drama that was of course about to ensue since Luke had met some girl at college and Peyton was jealous because he'd made a new friend. They talked about everything, everything except for Nathan. Which Haley was very grateful for. When she'd hung up she actually felt a little better.

Serena came barging in like she owned the place, throwing her purse at him as she did and Chuck was caught completely off guard. "What the hell! The hospital! You tried to kill yourself?"

He picked up the purse and set it on the table. "No," he said calmly, turning the TV off. "I didn't. I had some muscle relaxants and then a few acquaintances and I got drunk. I didn't do it on purpose, I just needed to forget."

"You ever think of maybe not doing things you need to forget afterwards?" she shouted as she slammed the door behind her.

"Yes, it had crossed my mind, considering I was alone in the hospital all summer."

"You were alone?" Serena's face and tone softened.

"Well, not really. I had Haley."

She frowned and sat down. "Haley? Who the hell is Haley?"

"The girl who brought me to the hospital, the girl who saved my life."

"Wow. You sound like you're in love."

"Speaking of, where is Blair?"

"I don't know and I don't care."

"Liar. So, what did you do this time?"

"I didn't do anything! I just happened to get accepted at a university that she doesn't want me to go to…"

Chuck chuckled and shook his head. "Aren't the two of your tired of blaming each other for everything that goes wrong in your lives yet?"


End file.
